FIFTEEN years ago, the government conducted a major research on car registration. They found out that to stop illegal and stolen cars plying our road, they would introduce a new vehicle registration system and plates.

The number plate was supposed to have four to five colours, all with reflective high quality paint, and there was supposed to be special UV spot coating along with a 3D sticker of Pakistan flag to ensure the authenticity of the plates.

The contract for the plates was handed to a local dealer, who imported all the equipment from the US. The cars were also to have the vehicle registration printed in permanent paint on windshields of the car.

This whole process was to help the traffic police and customs differentiate between illegal and legal vehicles easily on the road.

Unfortunately, after the first few months, the local company and government officials reduced the quality of the number plates. Now number plates are printed in one colour and the quality is so bad that the paint washes away within a few months.

There are no special spot UV coating or special 3D stickers. No registrations are printed on the car windshields and, in most cases, people are still using the old style number plates. Without all these features, the traffic police and customs cannot once again differentiate between legal and illegal cars.

The government deliberately stopped following the rules of the project. Their failure has resulted in the failure of the entire project and has not helped the police or customs.

In fact, even the terrorists who killed the innocent Peshawar schoolchildren arrived at the school in a two-year-old stolen car. This means that the terrorists have been using this stolen car for two years and they were able to drive this car into Peshawar without any traffic police, customs or other agency stopping them.

I request NAB and traffic police to investigate the head of department and the private company responsible for this project.

Shahryar Khan Baseer

Peshawar

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2015

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